Ridgefield police investigating bank robbery

Denis J. O'Malley

Updated 11:15 pm, Friday, January 24, 2014

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara...

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara...

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara...

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara...

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara...

Police tape blocks off the scene of a bank robbery at First Niagara Bank in Ridgefield, Conn. Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Police searched the parking lot for a suspect described as a white male in his late 20s with red hair and freckles. The suspect may have gotten into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Range Rover, according to police dispatches.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore

RIDGEFIELD -- A robber struck the First Niagra Bank branch early Friday afternoon, prompting a heavy police response in the affluent suburb and curious glares from its residents as they drove down Danbury Road.

"It's a little bizarre," said First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who could only recall three or four bank robberies in Ridgefield in the last 30 years.

The robbery on Friday started shortly after 1 p.m., when a man in his late 20s with red hair and freckles entered the First Niagra Bank branch at 108 Danbury Road and threatened he had a gun, which he did not show, according to police radio dispatches.

After the robbery, the suspect -- dressed in a green Carhart hoodie -- fled on foot before possibly getting into a dark-colored SUV, which may have been a Range Rover, dispatchers advised area police in a "Be on the Lookout" announcement.

Soon after, town police converged on the bank, roping off its parking lot with police tape and prowling the area. Officers in cruisers and on foot, assisted by a Danbury police dog unit, searched the large parking lot of a plaza across the street.

Several officers investigated inside the bank while others photographed the exterior and walked the location's perimeter.

While that type of response is to be expected for such a crime, the investigation of a bank robbery made for an unfamiliar sight in a town with one of the highest per capita incomes in Fairfield County.

Employees at the Shell gas station on Danbury Road were shocked by the police presence next door, particularly for a bank robbery, an incident one called "unusual" for a town like Ridgefield, which has a per capita income of $77,535, according to Census data.

While officers stood sentry at the bank's driveway, a mother walking her child in a Jeep stroller had to reach under a line of police tape to press a crosswalk signal on the pole.

"It is highly unusual for Ridgefield," Marconi said.

The first selectman said one practical reason why Ridgefield is not a very likely target for a bank robber is that it is not readily accessibly, with about 2 miles of local roads separating its center from the nearest state route, Route 7.

"Ridgefield's not the easiest location to access or to leave, so it strikes me as being somewhat unusual," Marconi said.

Details of the incident were not immediately available from police. Marconi said police notified him of the incident and said they were working with a good description of the suspect.